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Rural-Urban Outlooks: Unlocking Synergies (ROBUST)

ROBUST receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 727988.*

September 2018

FVMP

Sergio Mensua & Javier Esparcia

smensua@fvmp.org & Javier.esparcia@uv.es

Snapshot: Expressions of Urban – Peri-Urban – Rural Relationships

Agency for the promotion of commercial innovation: AFIC Network

Valencia, Spain

1. Brief Description

The Agency for the Promotion of Commercial Innovation (AFIC Network) is an instrument

through which the Generalitat Valenciana, the regional government (GVA), in collaboration

with the Local Administration through the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and

Provinces (FVMP), develops the process of modernisation and organisation of local commerce

in the region. It was founded in December of 2009.

The AFIC Network favours developing the whole region since it focuses its efforts on the

revitalisation of economic activity, especially those that are associated with small local

businesses.

2. Questions and/or Challenges

˃ Does the AFIC Network promote interaction between rural, peri-urban and urban

areas?

The AFIC Network works through the offices that there are in towns and cities (96

offices). It guides future entrepreneurs and established traders through the transfer of

information and knowledge. However, in small villages where they do not have an AFIC

office, it is difficult to offer the services. In order to solve this territorial problem, the

FVMP's "Proximity Commercial Technical Assistance Service" exists through its mobile

office, whose objective is to provide coverage to all parts of the region, focusing its

actions on inland areas. The mobile office is a van in which inside there is an office

where the work days are held. It works since 2012.

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Thus, the public sector (this activity is subsidized by the Valencian government), through the

decentralization of this service, promotes the creation and improvement of economic activity

throughout the urban, peri-urban and rural areas.

The AFIC Network, through specialized knowledge and the appropriate tools, is capable of

providing advice and technical support in the processes of modernization of SMEs, in the

renovation and commercial development of urban centres, as well as in the consolidation of

commercial urban spaces of preferential pedestrian use or in the expansion and reform of the

physical structure of collective commercial facilities.

The main challenges that the Network aims to overcome are:

˃ To bring the administration closer to the citizens, coordinating the relations between

the merchants and the regional and local administrations.

˃ To achieve efficient and competitive commercial planning within the municipalities.

˃ Strengthen traditional shopping to provide for the neighbourhood: small local stores,

family business or that commerce associated to traditional crafts.

˃ Facilitate access to specialised information for operators in the commercial

distribution sector, through the use of specific telematics tools.

˃ Participate in studies on the situation of local commerce, which should identify the

social, economic and urban factors that condition its dynamics.

˃ To make proposals for action on the strategies and investments to be developed, both

in territorial actions of commercial inspiration, as well as in those that affect collective

facilities.

˃ Carry out promotional activities to boost the city or villages' trade.

˃ Any other action or project that helps the rationalization and modernization of the

commercial structure, as well as the creation or capture of business opportunities

within the municipality, that could improve the quality of life and the attractiveness of

the city or villages.

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Once these objectives have been achieved, we should ask ourselves: is the decentralisation of a service such as this a valid tool to promote territorial cohesion? If so, should we extend this mechanism to other public services, and would bringing urban services closer to rural areas generate a positive chain reaction within the private sector? Or, on the contrary, is it feasible to expect a significant reduction of the differences between two very different realities?

3. Main Insights

3.1. Indications of the application of the new concept of 'New Localities'

The above challenges that the AFIC Network seeks to address are based on and

implemented with the intention of reducing the distance and equating the opportunities

of two very different worlds: the urban and the -disadvantaged and inland- rural. The AFIC

network makes it possible to establish direct relations between them thanks to its own

decentralized structure in order to balance access to information by citizens, regardless of

where they live. Even thanks to the use of the mobile unit, it is possible to bring

administrative action closer to a high percentage of users, universalizing the service. The

inhabitants of the most remote villages have the capacity to count on this service without

the need to go to another town or city.

In our region, there is a still general lack of services in rural areas. Many of them have

disappeared during the last decades, and in many other cases some of those rural areas

never have had it: Public services such as health and education at local level, but also some

other infrastructures, for example those related to accessibility. But there is also a lack in

training and advice, both those offered by public administration and of private initiative.

This is an important condition as the one related to some of the services mentioned above,

which are apparently more important and have a greater presence in public opinion

(education and health, for example). If the population of those rural areas don't have access

to knowledge and learning, aspects such as innovation, improvement, development and

progress could slow down or disappear. This is a disadvantage for that people. And it is

difficult to ignore. Also, we can say that the local businesses and commerce located in rural

municipalities have to fight against the hostility of their context (few customers,

uncompetitive suppliers, difficult access, bad internet connection, etc.). Without all that

the AFIC Network provides, economic and commercial activities would be weaker in those

remote rural areas, and would affect the quality of life of the rural population and, in

general, to social and territorial cohesion

This service that AFIC promotes allows a quality leap to be obtained in the most remote

municipalities in their local businesses through expansion (online sales, social networks),

product specialisation (comparative advantage over other products made in urban

contexts), sustainability (ecological products), tradition (recovery of forgotten trades),

legislative action, joint selling, etc.

AFIC service offers advantages both for traders than consumers. In the rural areas there is

not so much offer to choose. For this reason, if the local commerce improves, the consumer

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benefit will also do. The connection between merchants and costumers is so close. Aspects

such as sensitizing residents to shop in local shops is one of the campaigns that has gained

the most strength within the network's offices. Local trade has a direct link to the economic

and social development of towns and cities: they provide proximity (through the

consumption of native products), humane treatment (improves social and affective

relationships among the population), local development, hustle and bustle in the streets,

quality of life in general. Makes the towns and villages alive. But this small business does

not have the resources and means of large supermarkets. Small businesses must be valued

so that these differences can be reduced.

Commercial activity has important impacts on the territory, direct and non-direct. A

modern and efficient proximity trade allows to satisfy the needs of consumers in a more

sustainable way, promoting a city model more focused on people and where everyone

(traders, consumers, associations, administrations) can contribute to improve and

consolidate the environment (Community Field).

3.2. Insights related to the broad area of 'Smart Development'

The maintenance and improvement of the local economy through the AFIC Network is an

engine of development and generator of new opportunities for entrepreneurs and traders

already established. This provides more attractive spaces, increasing the citizen's quality of

life. One of the characteristics of AFIC network is the immediate assistance that it offers to

those municipalities without a physical office (through the mobile office). Once the mobile

office is available, it is the traders or the municipality who demand the services of the

mobile office increasing the cooperation between the public and private sectors.

Much of the training that the Network offers is linked to digitalization: through the

dissemination of business through many of the social networks that are indispensable

today. The Network has a training package for those traders who wish to incorporate new

technologies into their business:

˃ SEO positioning.

˃ Advertising on Google AdWords.

˃ Instagram.

˃ WhatsApp marketing, a new way to network.

˃ On-line sale.

˃ Facebook, the network of networks.

Intelligent specialisation through regional growth should focus on innovation in specific

sectors such as the one addressed by the AFIC Network and where there are particular

business opportunities.

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3.3. Other insights that could be relevant for further work

This example of decentralization of a particular service can inspire a new model of public

supply, at least in the disadvantaged rural areas of the region. This is one main challenge

facing public administrations, provided that they have to manage extensive areas. Even on

a small scale, this model of action can be applied, as the differences between

neighbourhoods are evident, even in small towns. Inequality is combated through social

justice that provides equal access to public services. The price per inhabitant that citizens

have to pay to maintain this equity will never be the same depending on where the service

is offered, because in remote rural areas, where the population density is lower, access will

always be more expensive. If the regions are formed by a society that is axiomatically

heterogeneous (distribution, economic capacity, age, sex, etc.) the policies that govern it

cannot be homogeneous.

In addition, the AFIC Network promotes the Green Commerce initiative, which is a

recognition of businesses that in the region pass an evaluation of the degree of compliance

with a series of good practices (related with minimising the environmental impact of small

businesses).

4. Data Sources and Indicators

In the region there are 96 offices distributed among villages, towns and cities. In addition, a

mobile office is available to go to the most isolated and remote small villages where, on

request, the service is offered (in the province of Valencia there are a network office available

in 52 of its 266 municipalities, 11 of 135 in the province of Castellón, and 33 of 141 in the

province of Alicante).

Unfortunately, by now, the network is more present in urban and intermediate rural areas,

but not in remote rural ones, in which nevertheless operate mobile service.

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Figure 1. Map of the AFIC network.

Source: AFIC Network https://www.portaldelcomerciante.com/es/articulo/mapa-red-afic

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Figure 1. Mobile office services

Source: Management Memory

Table 1 Data / Indicators for AFIC

Data / Indicator Source

Municipalities by province National Statistics Institute (INE)

Population by municipality National Statistics Institute (INE)

AFIC Network Offices Merchant Portal AFIC Network

https://portaldelcomerciante.com/va/articulo/afic-acreditades

Structural business statistics Statistical Portal of the Generalitat Valenciana

http://www.pegv.gva.es/auto/produccion/web/EEESS/aecv00193_v.html

Markets, Non-permanent markets and small businesses in the region (Valencian Community)

Chambers of Commerce of the Valencian Community

http://www.pateco.es/trabajo/analisisCarto.php?id=58

Mobile Service AFIC Network FVMP Management Reports

Number of services provided by the office

FVMP Management Reports

Municipalities requesting the AFIC mobile service

FVMP Management Reports

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5. Critical Appraisal of Data Use

It’s necessary to know the impact of the measures, who are the beneficiaries and if this

support has a result the improvement of the companies in the municipalities in which the AFIC

Network operates. On the other hand, it is also necessary to know what kind of business have

been promoted and where these businesses are located.

6. References

Calvo, R. Bou, M. Portet, J. (2015). Políticas de equidad, políticas de desarrollo: sin equidad no

hay desarrollo. Neopatria.

Instituto Nacional de Consumo (2017). Las Tendencias del Consumo y del Consumidor en el

s.XXI. Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo.

*The content of this publication does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed therein lies entirely with the author(s).